E-HAIL Research in Progress: Diagnostic decision making for vision threatening diseases: Is there a role for AI beyond diabetic retinopathy?

Dr. De Lott is a neuro-ophthalmologist and clinician scientist NIH K23 award to optimize decision making for a potentially blinding condition called optic neuritis. She is evaluating the feasibility of a future R01 submission of using multimodal AI image analysis to support diagnosis and treatment decisions for patients with optic neuritis. The National Eye Institute’s newly released Strategic Plan (2021-2025) highlights their interest in AI/ML for vision sciences.

In vision care, we combine clinical and exam features (such as the dilated eye exam or observation of eye movements), which is readily captured with standard office-based imaging techniques. Dr. De Lott has pilot tested AI eye image algorithms from patients with optic neuritis into 2 clinically relevant groups (treatment needed vs. treatment not needed) in a pilot grant. She will present her data and draft aims for feedback on a R01 submission.